As both teams moved cautiously forward, staying in contact at all times and mapping out the ship.
They found a corridor after a corridor, with some compartments here and there.
The odd thing about the ship was that there were no markings on the walls, no guidelines for the crew and all the compartments they found so far were locked.
Andrew didn't want to cut them open for now, worried about damaging whatever was inside if there was anything at all.
So they proceeded forward, with the droids in front, making sure to stay a few meters behind them.
Almost twenty minutes after they split up, they found a lift shaft; however, due to the lack of power, the lifts were unoperable.
But the good news was that there were stairs right next to the lift shaft, leading both up and down.
-Aelita, we found an elevator shaft and some stairs.
How about your progress?
Andrew asked over the comms.
-We stumbled into another dead end; this ship is a maze.
The engineer said, with a bit of frustration in her voice.
-If that's the case, come join us here.
The stairs go both up and down, so they should allow us to access other decks.
I'm leaving two droids here to guard the place and hold it in case we need to run for it.
Andrew said, and ordered the two droids to stand guard and protect this place.
-Alright, we are going your way.
It seems to be our best bet to access the engineering.
Aelita said.
-Alright, stay in touch; we are proceeding upwards.
He said and signaled the group to start climbing the stairs.
Upstairs, his group found a corridor filled with compartments, some of which were opened.
Upon their inspection, he deduced that this had to be the crew quarters, since there were bunks in the opened rooms, however, there were no personal items that he expected to find, and the compartments looked like they had never been used.
Most of the compartment doors were locked, and again, he decided not to open them.
What he wanted to find was the bridge and get some answers about this ship.
Just as he was thinking about returning to the staircase and going even further up, he heard Aelita's voice.
-Andrew, we got down to the lower decks and found a cargo hold.
Sha said.
-The thing is that it's full of crates and containers, but I dont see any sign of the crew or that anyone was ever here.
She reported.
-We found what looks like crew quarters, and some of them are opened, but it's the same: no items, not even a trace of habitation in any of the opened ones.
He said.
-I have a bad feeling about this.
Let's return to the ship and send more droids along with some guardian drones to search this vessel.
Aelita said, not hiding her nervousness.
-I also think that something is wrong with this ship.
My instincts tell me to leave this palace as soon as possible.
Arien said quietly.
She had no idea what was wrong, but through her military career, she learned not to ignore her instincts.
-Yeah, something is not right.
Andrew agreed.
-Everyone retreats to the corvette.
Droids take the rear guard and protect everyone.
Gunship, take off and provide cover once we are outside.
If there is anything following us, shoot it.
Andrew said, and he received a series of confirmations.
Right after that, he took the point as the only team member in armor while all five droids took the rear.
They were not running but cautiously moving along the corridors, using the map they made to quickly find the way out.
They met with Aelita's team right before they entered the last corridor leading to the airlock they used to get inside.
Andrew and Aelita took the point together, and this time, they all rushed down the corridor to the exit.
The moment they reached the airlock, Andrew contacted the gunship to let it know they were exiting and not to fire on them.
After receiving the confirmation, he stood by the exit and made sure that everyone else got out.
The last person to get out before him was Aelita, and the droids were still guarding the rear when he entered the airlock.
It was the moment he was exiting the ship when he saw something, and he was not the only one as all the droids rised their weapons, but were unable to lock on to any target.
-Everyone back to the ship, on the double.
Andrew said to the team and didn't linger any longer than he needed to.
Once outside, he saw that the whole team was back on the ground and rushing towards the corvette as fast as their magnetic shoes allowed them to move.
He climbed down in a hurry only to see one of the droids being flown through the airlock and into space the moment he reached the ground.
Looking up, he saw the retreating droids, but only four of them were following him, while the rest were still inside, and he seriously doubted if he'd see them again in one piece.
Whatever it was that flung the droid out the airlock was not only fast but also strong, and it was not afraid of the vacuum of space one bit, leading Andrew to believe that it was most likely some kind of a battle droid, maybe even a defensive mechanism protecting the ship.
Seeing that he had lost over half of his droids, he decided not to find out for now and started walking towards the ship as fast as he could.
The four remaining droids followed him while being turned towards the ship to provide cover.
Whatever it was that attacked the rest of the droids, and Andrew was sure they were attacked as he could see the ripped apart droids in the airlock.
Wasn't willing to follow them outside of the ship.
At least that was what he hoped was the case, or he could be in serious trouble.
Anything that could take out 6 battle droids in a tight space like the airlock was not something that should be trifled with.
-Gunship, do you see anything following me?
Andrew asked through the comms.
-Only the four droids, nothing else, but something was standing in the airlock for a moment before it went back inside the ship.
The pilot informed him.
-Did you record it?
-Yes, we use the cameras all the time now, so it should be recorded.
-Great. As soon as we are back at the station, download the data for analysis.
I want to know what we are dealing with.
Andrew said, while trying his best to make as much distance between himself and the alien vessel.
Luckily, whatever destroyed the droids didn't follow them, and everyone reached the ship safely.
Before launch, Andrew personally counted every person from both teams to be sure that they didn't leave anyone behind.
The moment he knew for sure that everyone had made it, he ordered the crew droids to lift off and get back to the station.
-It was too close.
Arien said, shuddering at the fate of over half of their battle droids, who were not that easy to take down, yet were slaughtered like lambs by whatever it was that they managed to escape from.
-I just hope that we didn't release something from that ship that should have stayed sealed.
Aelita said, also relieved that they managed to escape, but worried by what they had found.
-Even if we did, we can still repair the situation.
Andrew said calmly.
-How do you intend to do that?
Both ladies asked at the same time.
-We can either bomb this rock until there is nothing left, or we can send drones to set it on a collision course with this system's suns.
Andrew proposed two options.
-But we won't do anything other than monitor the situation for the time being, and I also don't think that this ship is going anywhere, any time soon.
He added.
-Well, if it has no power, then it won't go anywhere, but we dont even know what its power source is at this point.
Aelita agreed after a moment of thought.
-What we do know is that it has a very powerful guardian, and I dont think we will learn any more about it until we figure out a way to deal with whatever is guarding it.
Arien said.
-For now, let's get back and analyze what we learned; then we might come up with an idea of what we should do about the ship.
Andrew said while both ships jumped into FTL.